Downstairs Bathroom Plans at Saving Etta

Thank you so much for your feedback and comments on the master bathroom mood board for Saving Etta. While preparing for the plumbing, I had to start picking out all the fixtures. If you’ve been following me on Facebook and Instagram, you know that I ran into a little issue with the tub in the downstairs bathroom. The space was wider than the tub. I asked for your opinion and a lot of you wanted to keep the tub centered on the window.

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Ultimately, we framed out two walls on either side of the tub. At the foot of the tub, I will be installing a shampoo niche like this one. I bought it off Amazon because the price was much better than local stores.

One thing I forgot to mention on the master bathroom mood board is the addition of one of these beauties in the shower:

I stumbled across Designer Drains while on Instagram one day. Their beautiful drains are a wonderful way to upgrade the standard shower drain. In the master bathroom, the floor tiles will be black, which will make the brass show up nicely.

Back to the downstairs bathroom. In this bathroom, I’m using an exhaust fan by Broan that looks (and performs) just like a recessed light. It will be installed over the tub to provide adequate ventilation during hot steamy showers (my favorite.)

For the bathtubs, I turned to Wilkinson (our local plumbing supply house), to talk to them about bathtubs. Emily told me I couldn’t beat a Bootz tub for price and quality. At under $200 each, these tubs don’t break my budget. Plus, they have a finish that makes it feel like a cast iron tub, when in actuality they are super lightweight.

The idea for this bathroom is simple. White subway tile walls, maybe black hexagon flooring and some small hex tiles to accent the back of the shampoo niche. One of the photos I was drawn to on Pinterest is Aniko’s bathroom makeover from A Place of My Taste. You really need to see what she started with! As much as I’d like to use color in a bathroom, I think I should keep the tile and fixtures neutral to appeal to more buyers.

What do you think? Do you like the fixtures I’ve chosen for the downstairs bathroom? Is it too much black and white? Do I need to add some color?

These are links to the material sources:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links.
There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

Black Hex Tile

White Subway Tile

Small Black & White Hex Tile

Bronze Wide Spread Bathroom Sink Faucet

Wall Mounted Light Fixtures

Bathroom Vanity with Marble Top

Bath Exhaust Fan/Light

Mirror

Disclosure: Broan, Designer Drains, and Jeffrey Court are sponsors of the Saving Etta project. They will be providing complimentary products for the project.

June 4, 2018/11 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

bathroom, Decorating, Saving Etta

Master Bathroom Design Plans for Saving Etta

Master Bathroom Design Plans

It’s hard to believe I need to start thinking about all the materials and fixtures I’m using inside the master bathroom of my flip house. We are just finishing up framing this week and I have my plumber and HVAC contractors lined up to start roughing in the ducts and plumbing lines next. But, I need to have the tub and shower fixtures chosen so the plumber can install the water and waste pipes for the bathrooms and the kitchen. I’m learning on the fly about contingent tasks and it feels a little crazy right now. This week I learned I have to have the plumbing roughed in before the roof is installed. Details, they matter!

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you’ve seen a fair amount of progress on the house. If you’ve been following the Saving Etta chapters, I admit I’m behind the times. I received a comment from a reader who was angry that the chapters weren’t in real time. My explanation for this is that I just can’t do it all. Managing a project this size has left me with very little time to keep the blog updated. When I release a Saving Etta chapter, I want it to be well written for your enjoyment. With that being said, I hope you’ll forgive me if it takes a while for the Saving Etta chapters to get caught up (truth be told they may never be current.)

With that explanation out of the way, I want to share my mood boards. Today, let’s delve into my vision for the master bathroom. I hope you like the design direction I’m taking and will weigh in on a couple of questionable ideas I have.

In full disclosure, I’m working with Jeffrey Court Tiles. They are one of the fantastic sponsors for the Saving Etta project. If you’ve been to Home Depot lately, and wandered through the tile section, you probably swooned over some of the Jeffrey Court tiles. I bet you didn’t know that there are many more tiles varieties on their website!

Let’s start with the floor tiles. I recently discovered these beautiful Montpelier marble mosaic tiles. The pattern is intricately designed with tiny squares. Gorgeous, right?!

For the floor of the shower, I want to use these dark marble hex tiles. Not only will they add some contrast, but they also add some depth to the space. Plus, hopefully they will look clean even when dirty ;-).

The walls of the shower will be classic white subway tiles. I’m trying to maintain a historic and timeless feel in all three bathrooms. The shampoo niche will have more of the Montpelier mosaic tiles from the bathroom floor.

Being that this is the master bathroom, I want to add something extra special for the homeowners. Therefore, I’ve decided to install a super quiet exhaust fan from NuTone with a Bluetooth Wireless Speaker inside! You read that right, a fan with a hidden speaker inside. NuTone is also one of the Saving Etta sponsors. But, I would have used a NuTone fan regardless. They make quality exhaust fans that last for decades! We still have the original NuTone bath fans in our 40 year old house.

Finally, I’d like to add some hanging pendants in the master bathroom, but I’ll need to hang them high enough so they don’t get knocked around. Luckily, the master bathroom has 9 foot ceilings. What do you think about this idea? Are pendants in a bathroom weird? Will they be an annoyance or a upscale feature?

These are the pendants I bought from Houzz.com:

Hanging Triangle Shaped Glass Shade Pendent Fixture, Transparent

Finally, I haven’t been thrilled with the vanities available and want to make my own vanity. But, time will tell if I have the time to make it happen. There is so much to be done on the house and I’m hoping to have it finished by fall. It really would be amazing to be able to clone myself. In the meantime, I’m just going to keep chugging along.

Please let me know what you think about this design plan in the comments. Do you have pendants in your bathroom? Are they cool or a pain?

Image Sources:

Farmhouse Bathroom designed by Anne Sneed Architectural Interiors, featured on OneKinDesign

Tile Shower designed by Allison Willson, photography by Stacey Brandford

Montpelier Mosaic Tiles by Jeffrey Court Tiles

Black Marble Hexagon Tiles by Jeffrey Court Tiles

White Subway Tiles by Jeffrey Court Tiles

Hanging Cone Pendant Lights from Houzz.com

Very Quiet Bath Exhaust Fan from Nutone

Sensonic Bath Fan Speaker Accessory from Nutone

I can’t wait to share the rest of the mood boards with you. Stay tuned.

Disclosure: NuTone and Jeffrey Court are both sponsors of the Saving Etta project. They will be providing complimentary products for the project.

May 21, 2018/15 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

bathroom, cleaning, Giveaway, Home & Auto Maintenance, Product Review

Endurance BioBarrier Review

Endurance BioBarrier Review

I’m going to warn you now, this is not a pretty post. But, this product review of Endurance Cleaner Prep and Endurance BioBarrier will most likely be one of your favorite posts if you deal with continual mold & mildew growth (especially in a small coffin-like shower from the 1970’s.)

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

You may remember how much I love our master bathroom shower:

That ugly harvest gold tile shower is the ugliest spot in our home. And, its attractive color is not helped by the mold growth that returns like clockwork every three weeks. I have tried everything to control its regrowth. What I’ve tried is using bleach, and leaving the shower door open all day. I even replaced the caulk in this shower. But, every three weeks that mold peeks out from the cracks and crevices.

This bathroom is slated to be demolished at some point, but until then it needs constant cleaning. That is until a few months ago when I tried Endurance BioBarrier Mold Prevention Spray (non-toxic and low-odor.)

Endurance sent me a the Cleaner Prep and Biobarrier to try out. You may remember that I tried it after cleaning our dirty and moldy storm windows.

I didn’t want to blog about the products until I had tried them for more than a few months. I’m happy to report that for four months, I didn’t need to clean our shower! Normally after three weeks the mold and mildew would have been happily growing in the corners of my shower.

On February 5th, 2015 I set about cleaning the shower with high hopes but big doubts.

As directed, I sprayed the Endurance BioBarrier Cleaner Prep in the shower. I let it sit for 15 minutes (1-5 minutes for normal cleaning. 15 minutes for tougher jobs.)

To clean off the mildew and mold, I used a scrub brush. Then rinsed all the surfaces with water.

After the shower is completely cleaned with the Cleaner Prep, spray the Endurance BioBarrier Anti-Mold protection spray to create a thin film on all surfaces.

Wipe up any puddled spray after a few minutes.

The shower was clean and devoid of any mold or mildew. Nothing miraculous yet. I can achieve the same results with bleach cleaner.

But, here’s where the similarities end. After four months (not three weeks) was the first time I began to see some mildew and mold regrowth. Read more

July 8, 2015/103 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

bathroom, Before and After, cleaning, Giveaway, Home & Auto Maintenance

How to Clean a Stinky Boys’ Bathroom (as if a Magazine Photographer was Coming!)

I AM SO EXCITED! Remember when I was slaving away on our kitchen on my hands and knees?

While I was in the trenches of DIY, one thing kept me going steady (besides the extra doses of Advil.) It was the dream of having our home featured in a magazine. Well, that dream became reality this week! If you happen to be in the magazine section of a store near you, you might see this:

Do It Yourself is one of my favorite publications because they feature beautiful homes and projects that were created by the homeowner. They Did It Themselves! Plus, the magazine shows you how to complete the same projects yourself! I am super honored that they wanted to photograph my home and some of my DIY projects for this issue.

But, I have to tell you, I was very nervous before the photo shoot. I had visions of the editor and photographer walking in my home and walking back out in disgust. As the date drew closer, I was frantically checking last minute fixes and DIY projects off my list:

master bedroom:
build king sized bed
paint ombré effect on master bedroom walls
paint knotty pine dresser
paint vanity
create button pendant light
add legs to nightstand

foyer:
hack an ugly IKEA dresser
hang mirror

boys’ bathroom:
paint mirror frame
paint vanity
re-caulk board & batten
clean, clean, clean
figure out how to get rid of the urine smell! YIKES!!!

Any of you who have boys know that they have poor aim! No matter how clean I get their bathroom it still has a slight urine odor. Please, please tell me that I’m not the only one with this problem.

Funny story: I created this little piece of art that hangs on the wall over the toilet in the boys’ bathroom. I thought the kids would love it because they are big Star Wars fans. I also wanted them to think about this sage advice everyday when they wake up. Handsome Guy thought it was my attempt to get the kids to improve their aim. #Headsmack

Anyway, back to the urine odor. I would be mortified if the photographer and editor walked into that bathroom and got a whiff of pee. I set forth with only a few cleaning supplies ~~to try~~ to eliminate the odor (because “Do or Do Not…There is No Try.)

How to Clean a Stinky Boys’ Bathroom (as if a Magazine Photographer was Coming!)

Supplies:

(I’ve included affiliate links for your convenience. I earn a small percentage from a purchase using these links. There is no additional cost to you. You can read more about affiliate links here.)

HomeRight Steam Machine Plus
Lots of clean rags
Lemon oil + Water + Basic H2O mixture in a squirt bottle

Let’s get busy! Read more

January 23, 2015/27 Comments/by Brittany Bailey

31 Days of Handy Home Fixes, bathroom, Fix It, Home & Auto Maintenance, kitchen, laundry room, Plumbing

Day 9 – Replace Water Lines with Braided Metal Hoses

Welcome to Day 9 of my 31 Days of Handy Home Fixes. Would you believe that a burst water line can cause tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage to your home? It’s true! If one of your water supply lines is not braided metal, you could be putting your home in danger of a massive leak; leading to a flood; which can lead to rot, mold and termites! Yup, termites love moist wood.

Day 9: Replace All Water Lines with Braided Metal:

Take a few minutes to look behind your toilet, behind your washing machine and under sinks to see if you have water supply lines that look like these:

If you do, it’s time to change them out for braided metal water lines:

And if you are purchasing a new washer, dishwasher or refrigerator, request braided metal water supply lines instead of the basic lines that are sold with the appliance. The cost difference is literally a few dollars in some cases. That extra dollar or two could save you tens of thousands of dollars!

Replacing the water lines is as easy as attaching your garden hose. To replace your washing machine hoses, locate the water shut off (usually it is behind the washer.) Turn the knobs off. Then remove the supply line from the shut off and the back of the washer. Have a towel underneath to capture any drips.

Tighten the new braided hoses onto the washing machine and the water shut off valve. Turn the water back on and look for any drips or leaks. You might need to use a wrench to tighten up to half a turn more if you notice any drips after you turn the water back on.

Replacing the water lines to your toilet and sink is almost as easy, usually the shut off valve looks like this:

Replacing the dishwasher water line can be a bit trickier if it is behind your cabinets. You might need to call in a helper to help you remove the dishwasher.

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October 9, 2014/8 Comments/by Brittany Bailey